Making sense (and, sometimes, nonsense) out of Current News, Issues, Politics

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Caracol, Haiti and Why Hillary Can't Create Jobs

Following the massive earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010, the country needed some serious help in rebuilding itself and creating jobs. Enter Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with the promise of a new industrial park in Caracol that would create 65,000 new jobs and boost their economy. Hundreds of small farmers were forced to give up 600 acres of land in order to build a $300 million industrial park.

The only problem is that, when the park opened in 2012, it only employed one-tenth of the promised workforce at a cost of about $50,000 per person. Given that the minimum wage is $5-a-day in Haiti, $50,000 could have been used to give each of those 6000 workers a guaranteed equivalent salary for 31 years.

In order to employ even more workers at that site, millions more would be needed to build an additional 12 buildings that could employ a total of 20,000 workers. Still well short of the 60,000 that Hillary promised. Basically, Caracol is now looking to be the proverbial money pit and it has Hillary's fingerprints all over it.

Finally, it is interesting to me that the Clinton Foundation is still touting Caracol as a success on their web page. Note this from that site:

"In collaboration with the Government of Haiti, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the U.S. State Department, the Clinton Foundation assisted with the development of the Caracol Industrial Park, which could ultimately create up 60,000 jobs and help to decentralize the Haitian economy. In October 2012, President Bill Clinton joined Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, President Martelly, Prime Minister Lamothe, and President Moreno of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for the opening of Caracol Northern Industrial Park. Today, the Korean apparel manufacturer Sae-A is the anchor tenant and will create 20,000 jobs alone."

Sounds like a miracle of job creation, doesn't it? Too bad it's just another Clinton lie.